Eighth-graders at Sims Middle School in Pace got a visit from Rep. Matt Gaetz on Tuesday during a Google-sponsored assembly on internet safety.

The assembly was part of Google's Online Safety Roadshow to educate children on how they can stay safe and secure online. The program teaches children how to create safe passwords and avoid identity phishing scams.

Gaetz, a Republican and one of the youngest members of Congress, spoke before the official program began and asked the group of more than 100 children how they use the internet. He got various answers from the group, from doing homework to playing the video game "Fortnite."

Gaetz said he was familiar with "Fortnite," which drew a round of applause from the young audience.

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Gaetz State Rep. Matt Gaetz(Photo: PNJ archive)

One student asked Gaetz how anyone can really be safe on the internet when people are always trying to find ways to harm other people online.

"What you have just described was about as insightful as any of my colleagues," Gaetz said. "…This is the operative question of the day for policymakers, and it's one of the reasons why Google is traveling all over middle schools and high schools in the country to work on answering that question."

"Even though roads can actually take lives, you are all looking forward to getting on them as fast as you possibly can," Gaetz said. "But just like we teach driver's education, just like we have driver's improvement school — which I have had to attend several times — we also have to employ those same safety practices to the internet."

Gaetz said the students should think about what they put out on the internet because it could stay with them forever.

"No matter what you want to do in life, you want to come across as a dedicated and serious person," Gaetz said. "You want to appear to others as someone who cares about people, and who is not a bully, and not in any way engaged in the type of constructive conduct that is unattractive to a potential employer or voter or even a date."

Gaetz told the News Journal after the assembly he supported keeping government out of the internet as much as possible.

"I'm a libertarian-leaning conservative, so I often think government's excessive entanglement with the internet can lead to negative consequences," Gaetz said. "I believe what I said to those kids, that one of the reasons why the internet has been one of the most productive endeavors of our generation is it's been free of too much government interference."